Mark Twain, an American author, said that “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great-grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.”

Another Yorkshire-born American Unitarian Minister, J. T. Sunderland, said that nearly every kind of manufacture known in the civilized world, nearly every kind of creation of man’s brain and hand, existing anywhere and prized either for its utility or beauty, had long being produced in India. India was a far greater industrial and manufacturing nation than any in Europe or any other in Asia. Her textile goods – the fine products of her looms, in cotton, wool, linen and silk were famous over the civilized world; so were her exquisite jewellery and her precious stones cut in every lovely forms; so were her pottery, porcelains, ceramics of every kind, quality, colour and beautiful shape; so were her fine works in metal – iron, steel, silver and gold.

He further said that India had great architecture – equal in beauty to any in the world. She had great engineering works. She had great merchants, great businessmen, great bankers and financers. Not only was she the greatest shipbuilding nation, but she had great commerce and trade by land and sea which extended to all known civilized countries. She was the India the British found when they came.

Empress Josephine, wife of Emperor Napoleon, was a connoisseur of Indian shawls and textile. Similarly, royalties the world over used to patronize Indian textiles because of its high quality. Indian spices found its way into the royal kitchens. The list was endless. Traders from down South and West used to navigate international waters on India-made ships.

Singapore was discovered by Vijaynagar Empire, which also helped set up modern administration system, in now called Malaysia.

Empire of Ashok was the world’s largest and he was instrumental in exporting Buddhism, now the world’s third largest followed religion.

Despite weakening of Empires and their getting fragmented; despite continuous attacks of looters from Middle East and beyond; despite Moslem and Mughal Rulers becoming more powerful, wealth and skill of India was such that, it remained a global leader in trade. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, as the British economic historian Angus Maddison has demonstrated, India’s share of the world economy was 23 per cent, as large as all of Europe put together. By the time the British departed India, it had dropped to just over 3 per cent.

It is quite visible, as quoted by Shashi Tharoor, the Politician and Author of ‘An Era of Darkness’ that, the reason was simple: India was governed for the benefits of Britain. Britain’s rise for 200 years was financed by its depredations in India.
In present times, in last few decades you could see further deterioration in form of growing outsourcing, erosion of entrepreneurship in India’s Business Community. Sadly, the new generation prefers working in BPOs, IPOs, Call Centres, again serving the West. You see large factories getting shut down. Even India’s greatest and historical brands of textiles, ceramics, etc. are being outsourced from other countries.
My forefathers used to say, that if you are serving as an employee, you are feeding your family. If you are an entrepreneur you are feeding 200 families.
I look forward for the old glory of India to come back, in form of rise in entrepreneurship, growth in M&SME. Pre-British era, India was a global leader in trade because of traders and small entrepreneurs.
I would like to end with a statement made by Albert Einstein, American scientist: “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”